The first mission weblog - welcome to the TanDEM-X blog!

Right on time for 'shipment' of the German radar satellite TanDEM-X this coming Thursday, 29 April 2010, we are launching the TanDEM-X blog – and looking forward to our first mission weblog on the new platform. The plan at this time is for Mission Manager Stefan Buckreuss and the DLR Communications team to be joined on the blog by colleagues working in the areas of project management, science, mission operations, the ground station network, flight dynamics, radar, calibration and data processing.

The excitement will not be confined to the launch, which we will be blogging live from the German Space Control Centre (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen. Thereafter we, that is to say the colleagues on the TanDEM-X blog team described above, will be blogging about everything that we think is worth reporting. This will range from the acquisition of the first images through the 'formation flying' of the satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X to the 'fine-tuning' of the radar and the first digital elevation model (DEM) obtained using the two satellites.

However, right now, the stage is empty and set for tomorrow's first blog entry from the Mission Manager.